Five
dead, three missing as flooding continues to threaten Tasmania

The
body of a woman has been found in northern Tasmania, a day after her
husband was rescued through the roof of their flooded home.

Earlier
today, police rescued a woman who was caught in a car in rising
floodwaters near Evandale, in Tasmania's north, but the search for
her companion continues.

The
search has also resumed for Trevor Foster, who is in his 80s and
cannot be found.

This
general aerial view shows flooding in North Wagga Wagga, New South
Wales. Photo: AFP

Police
said 107 people had been rescued from flood-affected areas, and
Commissioner Darren Hine urged people to stay away from floodwaters.

"We
rescued over 100 people who have made poor decisions and put
themselves into danger by entering flood waters," he said.

"We've
rescued over 20 people with the helicopter, and again while were
doing this, we can't do our other duties and takes away our resources
where they may be needed to save lives."

Tasmania's
State Emergency Service (SES) had shifted its focus to the South Esk
River, the town of Longford and the Launceston suburb of Invermay.

People
in the Launceston suburb of Invermay had been advised to evacuate
their homes immediately.

Two
evacuation centres were available at the Silverdome in Prospect and
the University of Tasmania at Newnham.

While
the South Esk had flooded, it was not expected to peak until tonight
or Wednesday morning.

Worst
of Queensland's wild weather over

The
wild weather hit Queensland on Saturday and moved south over the
weekend to New South Wales, where a search is continuing for a
swimmer missing off Bondi Beach in Sydney.

A
body had been found at Dover Heights in Sydney's east during the
search for the missing man, but it hadn't been confirmed that he was
the person whose body was found.

A
man looks at the damage at Collaroy on Sydney's northern
beaches. Photo: AFP

Emergency
services in NSW said it was too early to assess the damage after king
tides peaked along the New South Wales east coast on Monday night.

Australia's
Bureau of Meteorology said the low pressure system was losing
strength as it moved off the coast, but a large swell and king tides
would raise the risk of flooding, beach erosion and coastal
inundation in all coastal areas south of Port Macquarie.

For
central areas of the coast, the threat of erosion was unlikely to be
as high as Sunday night's event, as the wave heights would be lower,
the bureau said.

The
Bureau of Meteorology's Tony Yates said, while more rain was
forecast, the worst had passed.

"There
will be further rainfall today but no really significant falls, and
there'll actually be some periods where it will ease off completely,
so the worst of it has definitely passed," he said.

'This
is a national disaster'

Deputy
Premier Jeremy Rockliff described the Tasmanian floods as a national
disaster and the state government has offered emergency aid to those
who have lost homes and belongings.

Residents
watch the overflowing Parramatta river that submerged a ferry
terminal in Sydney. Photo:AFP

Aid
of up to $750 per family, $200 per adult and $100 per child would be
made available through Service Tasmania.

"State
and federal governments have to work together, this is a national
disaster relief scenario, many lives will be shattered, it's
devastating and still very dangerous," Mr Rockliff told 936 ABC
Hobart.

The
SES will be conducting a detailed impact assessment today.

Meanwhile,
Premier Will Hodgman described the floods as catastrophic.

"It's
certainly disastrous, this is an extreme weather event, the worst
flooding we've experienced in this state in 40 years and it's likely
to get worse - it's likely to cause further damage," he said.

The
Insurance Council of Australia had declared the event a catastrophe
and had established a taskforce.

Mr
Rockliff said the floods had hit farmers particularly hard, with some
losing hundreds of livestock.

"I've
spoken to a number of farmers, vegetable processors and the situation
is catastrophic for them," he said.

"There's
been huge losses of stock, I'm aware of farmers who have lost 200
head of stock, dairy cattle and beef cattle, logs smashed through
houses, irrigators a mangled mess, farms completely underwater."

There
had been numerous reports of livestock being swept away by
floodwaters but the full extent of stock losses was yet to be known.

One
man at the flooded Horsehead Creek, near Devonport, shepherded
several cows to safety using his stand-up paddleboard.

Dairy
farmer faces devastating loss

Dairy
farmer Paul Lambert from Mersey Lea, south of Latrobe, said he had
lost at least 100 cows.

The
floodwaters rose so quickly on Sunday night and Monday morning he was
not able to get his 500 cows to higher ground.

"The
cows stood up to their bellies in water but I don't know where they
are now." he said.

"There's
probably 100, if not more. Neighbours have lost more than that and
there's a lot of damage, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
damage," he said.

"It's
devastating. I watched some neighbours' cows go down the river
yesterday.

"Just
terribly sad, you can hear them bellowing and you can't do anything."

Five
bodies found

On
Monday, NSW Police said divers had retrieved two bodies from cars
that were washed away in flood waters.

A
man's body was found in his car on Anthony Road at Leppington, in
south-western Sydney, while a 65-year-old man's body was found in a
car in floodwaters at Bowral in the Southern Highlands.

The
body of another man was recovered from a swollen river in Canberra.

NSW
Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Kyle Stewart said it was a
tragedy to see deaths despite constant warnings about the dangers of
entering flood waters.

"We
simply do not know how either of these two men came to be in the
floodwaters. But what we know is that their deaths show just how
dangerous floodwaters are," he said.

The
body of the woman found in Tasmania today and the body found in
Sydney brought the total confirmed death toll to five.

Her
husband lost contact with her before being rescued off the roof of
their property yesterday morning.

A
flood evacuation centre has been set up at the Silverdome at Prospect
and at the University of Tasmania at Newnham.

The
Launceston Flood Authority is confident new flood levees finished
last year will protect the city.

"We
have constructed them to a one-in-200-year flood level; the predicted
level from this flood is somewhere between the one-in-50, or
one-in-100," general manager Andrew Fullard said.

"The
Bureau of Meteorology has predicted the flood peak at 8:00am tomorrow
[Wednesday] morning with a high tide at about 4:00am as well which
will impact the levels."

Mhairi
Revie from the SES said people should not be complacent.

"The
levees are still levees and levees can fail," she said.

A
flood siren at Invermay would sound if residents were in immediate
danger.

"If
they do hear the siren, absolutely that is time to leave and that
will only occur with a decision that we want them to leave now and at
that point we'll be doing other public information," she said.

At
Longford, just to the south of Launceston, residents are being told
to consider leaving as a precaution as the threat from floodwaters
fed by the South Esk River continues to row.

Damage
bill expected in the millions

In
most areas the damage bill is still being calculated with farmers in
particular expected to be hit hard.